Prohibits Black Bear Hunting

New Jersey State Legislature ^ | MAY 3, 2004 | http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2004/Bills/A3000/2634_I1.HTM

[ZULU]

ASSEMBLY, No. 2634

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

211th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED MAY 3, 2004

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone

District 31 (Hudson)

SYNOPSIS

Prohibits black bear hunting for five years and until study is issued by Fish and Game Council; appropriates $95,000.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

As introduced.

An Act concerning the hunting of black bear and making an appropriation.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. a. Notwithstanding any law, rule, regulation, or provision of the State Fish and Game Code to the contrary, there shall be no open season nor any hunting by permit for black bear anywhere in the State prior to five years after the effective date of this act and until a study is conducted by the New Jersey Fish and Game Council pursuant to subsection b. of this section.

b. The Fish and Game Council shall, within 18 months after the date of enactment of this act, conduct a study setting forth (1) the status and management of the black bear population in the State, (2) an analysis of the population growth of black bear in the State, and (3) information on the availability, effectiveness, and implementation of alternative black bear population control methods, reproductive control methods, and sterilization control methods. Upon completion of this study, the State Fish and Game Council shall submit a written report to the Department of Environmental Protection, the Governor, and both Houses of the Legislature.

2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Fish and Game Council the sum of $95,000 to carry out the purposes of this act.

3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill would impose a statutory moratorium on black bear hunting in the State for five years after the date of enactment of this bill and require the State Fish and Game Council to conduct a study on the black bear population in the State.

The provisions of the bill would provide that the Fish and Game Council shall, within 18 months after the enactment of this bill, conduct a study setting forth (1) the status and management of the black bear population in the State, (2) an analysis of the population growth of black bear in the State, and (3) information on the availability, effectiveness, and implementation of alternative black bear population control methods, reproductive control methods, and sterilization control methods. Upon completion of this study, the State Fish and Game Council shall submit a written report to the Department of Environmental Protection, the Governor, and both Houses of the Legislature.

This bill also would appropriate $95,000 to the Fish and Game Council for the preparation and completion of the study.

[ZULU]

"reproductive control methods"

I suggest Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone and the other representatives in Trenton who feel the Black bear population, currently restricted mainly to the northwestern, huntable sections of the state, be supplied with several boxes of condoms and turned loose during breeding season to address the wanton reproductive activities of black bears.

One way or the other, the outcome would be most salubrious for the remaining rational residents of that state.

[olde north church]

Does Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone have a brother-in-law with a black bear studying business. I wonder if it has anything to do with the black bear appearances in the "Sopranos"?
I would like to start a petition that prevents the NJ assembly from meeting on any day ending in the last three letters "day".

[ken5050]

Your got the title of the bill wrong...IT prohibits Black Bears in NJ from hunting humans or pets for a period of 5 years.

[Jonah Hex]

I want to be there when Assemblyman Anthony Chiappone tries to put a condom on a bear. I'll bring the popcorn.

[newgeezer]

That was similar to my first thought. If the black bears can't hunt, how are they going to eat?

[kdot]

Unfortunately, many wont take the bear problem seriously until the child of a high-profile family is killed. The bears are dangerous. My family has lived in the same town for generations and there was an implied respect between the few bears we had and us. Now, there are so many bears that the way of life has changed. My brother can't leave his (little) dog outside on a leash any more. The bears come right up on the deck almost daily. My Mom opened the house door and walked on the deck to find a bear hanging out! She quickly retreated back into the house. Shoot one to save your life and you'll be interrogated endlessly.

For those who say the bears were there first, I say "You don't know what you're talking about". If there can be deer hunts to thin the population, why not bear? Where is the common sense?

[Tacis]

Is this something that Sheila Jackson-Lee and Maxine Waters initiated?

[BillyCrockett]

You're absolutely right on. People who don't live in the wilder areas of states, should have NOTHING to do with decisions like this. The morons who're bringing wolves back into areas they had been driven from,(by nature) are not doing anything but making themselves "feel good". They couldn't care less about the world's MOST endangered species... humans.

[ZULU]

"I would like to start a petition that prevents the NJ assembly from meeting on any day ending in the last three letters "day"."

Beautful!!

I think it has to do with the Governor wanting not to aggrevate his constituents in the animal rights lobby by being manoeuvered into permitting another bear hunt.

By the way, someother Democrat introduced a bill which would restructure the Fish and Game Council by adding three enviro nuts and giving the govenor authority to remove any current or future member for any reason or no reason whatsoever. So now he can use the Fish and Game Council to further an anti-hunting, ant-gun, anti-Homo sapiens agenda to make his buddies in PETA squeal with delight.

[ZULU]

"If there can be deer hunts to thin the population, why not bear? Where is the common sense?"

There is none. These people learn Zoology by watching Walt Disney instead of from reading animal behavior texts.

And if you think you have problems with bears (I thought people in Virginia were smarter than people in New Jersey when it comes to hunting?), WAIT until the Mountain Lions make a comeback.

There have been confirmed sitings in Pennsylvania and rumors in northern New Jersey and New York State - all of which makes sense. There always was a remnant population in eastern Canada and as the deer herds grow, so do the numbers of their predators. And there have been a number of fatal and near fatal attacks by Mountain Lions in Colorado and California. They particularly like to attack children or humans of a small size. Too bad they aren't attracted to attorneys and politicians, then maybe I'd support a ban on hunting them.

Just thank the Native Ameicans for wiping out Mammoths and Saber-Tooth Tigers or the PETA people would be telling us we can't them either and Walt Disney would be doing a movie called "Sally, the Friendly Saber-Tooth".

[Myrddin]

We have mountain lions and black bears in the mountains around Pocatello. Hiking unarmed is stupid. If you hike closer to the Montana border, you get grizzlies, mountain lions and big Canadian wolves in packs of 5 to 7.

[olde north church]

The only agenda the "Fish and Game Council" has is to increase license fees in order to provider pay raises for the upper echelon bureaucrats. They had all the credibility of a round of Kremlin applause.
It might be high time to begin in-your-face confrontation of these animal rights activists starting with hitting them with piss-filled balloons.

[ZULU]

"It might be high time to begin in-your-face confrontation of these animal rights activists starting with hitting them with piss-filled balloons."

I like that. But I'd use urine from a female black bear in heat.

[ZULU]

Ahhh, Idaho!! A part of America still exists!!!

[gilor]

There's still wildlife in Jersey???

[olde north church]

Obviously you have been fishing on Monksville Resevoir on a warm spring night.

[ZULU]

"There's still wildlife in Jersey???"

There sure is - too much of it.

We also have animals - bears, deer, and, the word is, mountain lions, and so do you - saw a picture of one taken recently in Lockhaven on somebody's back porch - it looked like a subadult.

[ZULU]

Where's Monksville?

[olde north church]

Near Greenwood Lake, I'm thinking county road 507/537 something like that.
The closest town is Ringwood. It's the next reservoir above Wanaque.

[Condor51]

Anthony Chiappone (D)
(the 'D' is for Dimwit)

Why do I get the feeling that 'Ant'ony has NEVER fired a gun, let alone hunted. Especially considering that he's from BAYONNE! As good 'ole little Ant-ony is a city fella, and by his looks I doubt ANT-ony has never been further north west in NJ than say... Morristown. Heck, he probably spends more time in Staten Island than Jersey.

---

This is from the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife:

Black bears are the largest land mammal in the Garden State and live in forested areas throughout northern New Jersey. Here in the most densely populated state in the nation black bears are thriving in close proximity to people.

Today, New Jersey's black bear population is increasing and expanding as is the number of conflicts between humans and black bears.

---

So once again, we have a stoo-pid dem, sticking their nose in something they know absolutely NOTHING about. As I would assume that IF the Bear population was threatened, which is contrary to Fish & Wildlife, I'd think the Assemblymen FROM THAT area of the state would raise this concern.

So yeah, like a few have noted, maybe ANT-ony's cousin Guido has a Bear Condom business. Or his uncle Vinny has an inside track on the sale of diaphragms for female bears.